Looking over Jack Cofano’s Smoke Out photo gallery of our 1997 Sportster-based feature bike from Chop Machine in Toledo, Ohio, I can’t say any bad things about its period-good-enough-for-me look. Right up front I should say that this bike was built to a price and that’s not a bad thing. We all wish we had tons of dough to throw around on a moment’s notice, but we don’t so bang...

   Most of the parts you see on Rick’s über-custom 2013 H-D Road King called Dirty Thirty (for reasons that are unknown to me as you can see it’s a clean and classy ride) are manufactured right in Rick’s custom shop inside his spotless Baden-Baden, Germany, Harley dealership. Talk about a one-stop shopping experience for those with the financial wherewithal. You could order the...

      Now there’s a hell of a CamTech big wheel bagger here, but I’m going to focus on the Lumilor paint by Darkside Scientific first as I’m still trying to wrap my head around this development of electricity and paint as one. And, I don’t mean maybe glowing a bit if you hit the right light either. It really lights up! This really funky graffiti-style paintjob by CamTech Custom...

  And, that’s exactly what we’ve got here with this custom Fat Boy that rings all my bells. Personally, I’m not as much into radical unrideable customs as a well-done modified stocker that ramps things up both cosmetically and performance-wise. I love still seeing the stock profile that’s been tweaked so you know it’s special, but still what it is. That takes a great bit of talent...

   Now that doesn’t mean I just clump all custom baggers in one group and give them all leeway to accept whatever they’ve done. I’m not that nice or politically correct. Like any custom including the ones that are near and dear to me, some are just a lot better than others and that’s exactly the case with this big wheel bastard of a radical bagger you’re looking at. First and...

The five minute horn blew and soon we are heading out to our first fuel stop and lunch in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Our Road Guards have everything under control as we roll toward our destination. As we arrive at our fuel stop at the Pilot Truck Stop, I look around as I am waiting to move up to fuel. . As I look across all the bikes, I notice our group is considerably larger now. What a...

     All I have to do to justify my appreciation for custom Harley builders from the other side of the Pacific is to point out our stunner of a Shovelhead feature bike called GangStar from Ken Nagai of Ken’s Factory located in Nagoya City in Japan’s Aichi prefecture and also at Ken’s new American facility in Signal Hill, California. Is that thing a pip or what? Strange as it may...

Although I’m going to be hanged for this, in a lot of ways Moto Guzzi has a lot in common with Harley-Davidson. Both have been pushing an ancient architecture air-cooled engine as their mainstay power plant for decades and decades although Harley wins the longevity prize here. Guzzi’s been building a 90-degree V-twin air-cooled pushrod engine (think of it as a slice of a Chevy...

The five minute horn blew and soon we are heading out to our first fuel stop and lunch in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Our Road Guards have everything under control as we roll toward our destination. As we arrive at our fuel stop at the Pilot Truck Stop, I look around as I am waiting to move up to fuel. . As I look across all the bikes, I notice our group is considerably larger now. What a...

  Like every enthusiast-driven industry, there are going to be some ups and downs, but where there’s a will, there’s always a way. One of the more interesting trends I’m starting to see is the guy who’s not trying to make his only means of living out of building one-off customs, but is personally doing a few ground-ups or serious makeovers just for the learning experience and fun...